It's only because the vast majority of the vendors that I threw money at preparing my car were so GOOD, that I am left having to spotlight on that is not: Racer Wholesale.

Since I have a big head - more than figuratively, it seems - I couldn't get it into the largest Bell XFM1 made if I wore a balaclava. I decided to go the helmet skirt route and ordered one from these folks. It arrived quickly but was 3" too short to go around the base of the helmet. It literally came up short.

I called to arrange a return and was told that I would get a refund, if I would box it up and ship it back. I asked specifically about the cost of return shipping and was told that I'd be credited that amount, too.

The short version is that six phone calls to three different "customer service" people later, while I got credit for the $29.95 price of the skirt, I didn't get credit for either shipping charge - to me or back to them.

To this, all I have left to say is THANK YOU to the following companies, who understand that customers don't get treated like this, even if it means eating some of the profit from sales. In no particular order...

Bill Black VW - Greensboro, NC
Competition Cages - Hillsborough, NC
Don's Sport Vehicle Sales - Detroit, MI (VDO products)
Metal Frictions - Seattle, WA (custom brake pads)
BSI Racing - Ormond Beach, FL (OE and VW racing parts)
Foreign Accents - Greensboro, NC (Euro car service and parts)
Greensboro Tire - Greensboro, NC (mounting and balancing)
Phil's Tire Service - Haverstraw, NY (Toyo race tires)
American Sign Shop - Greensboro, NC (vinyl graphics)
Speedway Motors - Lincoln, NE (helmet skirt that fit, alignment tools)
Battleground NAPA - Greensboro, NC (special tool, parts)
Drivewerks - El Segundo, CA (Halon fire extinguisher)
Cascade Autosport - North Bend, WA (Willans harness)
Green Ford - Greensboro, NC (brake fluid)
The Parts Bin.com - Hamilton, NJ (OE parts)
North American Race Parts - Indianapolis, IN (Bell helmet)
Summit Racing - Sparks, NV (rollcage padding)
LTB Motorsports (MOMO products)
tc kline racing - Hilliard, OH (Recaro seat and brackets)
Foreign Automotive Parts - Flint, MI (Brembo rotors)

Kirk

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The Parts Bin.com - Hamilton, NJ (OE parts)
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Represent my home town. I go by there 3 or 4 times a week, good to know they are a reputable business, maybe I will get some stuff from there.


Too bad about Racerwholesale though, thats pretty sucky. It only takes one bad business to leave a bad taste in your mouth when it comes to that sort of thing.

 

After some shopping for some track items for the new car...

to

Carbotech
HMS Motorsport
Len (Baranco Acura)
OG Racing
IPS Racing
NOPI
Pegasus Racing

to

Heel Toe Auto

Why the ? Had ordered a set of lugnuts, which i was told was in stock. I was sent 16 (not 20) of the long style lugs. A few days later i was sent 4 more - except they were different, they were 'short'. So i sent them back, and was refunded. Then i had to ask for a refund for the shipping costs, which i did receive. Not the worst experience, but its a good thing i wasnt on a time crunch to get the wheels on.

 

Knestis,

Before bashing Racerwholesaler I have to mention that these companies kick it!

Appaliacian Tire
Safe Quip
Tire Rack
Porterfield
Susman Honda
* Store at Lime Rock

My experiences with Racerwholesaler?

I've dealth with them twice:
The first time I had a bad sale rep... this is what I documented:

Note #1
I just order my first SA rated helmet. I tried a G-Force Helmet (Pro
Force 1) on at Lime Rock Park where the helmet listed for 299.99. Of
course I realized that the helmet would most likely cost less money
if I ordered it from http://www.racerwholesale.com

It was like 50 bucks less, however the experience left me wishing I'd
spent the extra money at the track. Here's a letter I wrote to the
company.
---------------------------------------

"bad sales experience"
http://www.racerwholesale.com/
800.397.7811

I've never had a bad experience buying anything racing related.
Usually the people I deal with are, if not excited about the sport of
racing, at least courteous.

However when I ordered a Pro Force 1 SA2000 helmet (white) and a neck
brace (red), I felt quite put off by the salesperson on the phone. He
was completely unapproachable and obviously not interested in my
satisfaction. In fact he seemed rushed, frustrated, and angry. He
also cut me off mid-sentence and was even sarcastic at one point when
I was trying to figure out what size neck brace to buy. Not only did
I think twice about placing my order, I also felt uncomfortable
giving this person my credit card information.

I want to continue ordering from your company, but after this
experience, I'm tending to want to shop elsewhere.

I felt it was necessary to bring this to your attention, and give you
the opportunity to win my confidence... once again.

Sincerely,
D...

------

I don't usually do this type of thing, but like the note said, it's
really in the best interest of the company to know what type of
people they have working for them, and the guys was a complete ***!

I did give the guy a chance, asking him if he was having a bad
day or something. He replied no, so I suggested that he work on his
personality a bit if he wanted to continue working in sales. I
didn't like him much, and now the feelings are mutual.

.................................................. .....
Note #2
Just an update:

RacerWholesale did call me back, and I did receive both the Helmet
and support within 3 business days.

A manager called me, concerned that I ordered the correct size helmet
support. He also explained that that salesperson was known for his
matter-of-fact style and was toward the end of his shift. He also
acknoledged, that wasn't an excuse for being rude. However [the manager] did
project a slight attitude, I guess that only makes sense since I was
critiquing "his" company.

In general, I expect a great deal from a company where I'm spending
my hard earned dollar, some of you might not expect as much. So
here's my opinion based on the limited experience I've had with them;
if you know what you want and don't want to discuss options, then
this place is for you. They deal with quality products and I was
very happy with the shipping. However if you're looking for
opinions, and you're not sure what you're looking for, this may not
be the place for you. If you happen to get a sales representative
you're not happy with, perhaps the easiest thing is to simply ask for
someone else. Like the business name says, they are a "wholesaler".
I guess that means something.

Will I buy from them again? Possibly.

Rating? 3 out of 5 stars.
The sales experience sucked, but they made an effort to satisfy
me and their products and their efficency are great.

--------
The second time was when a friend gave me a gift certificate.
After receiving an email: (documented here: http://tinyurl.com/2ykja )

I talked to a dude on the phone. I found out that the only way to use a gift certificate is to mail it in with a written order. Mind you, they don't have an order form, so as the rep said, write down on a "piece of paper", what you want. "Can I fax it?... give you the number on the gift certificate?..."

The free t-shirt I got makes an excellent shop rag.

 

For these reasons I have stopped dealing with racerwholesale and now go through Discovery Motorsports (http://discoveryparts.com ).

Ron carries pretty much the same stuff at the same prices (sometimes lower) but his customer service is A+. You will also sometimes find him providing track side support at Southeast events.

But the super duper double thumbs up with a twist goes to Louis at LTB. That guy must lose money sometimes going out of his way for his customers.

 

I haven't had any problem with Racer PARTS Wholesale, but I have not dealt with the safety equipment branch of the company.... Can't comment there.

I have, however had EXCELLENT customer service from the following:

KONI NA: Lee Grimes kicks butt
SBMS: Tom Blaney has been very helpful to me
OPM: Tom Fowler was good to work with, when reachable .
DeltaGroup: Walt Puckett was very nice to work with - great small business.
Lightning Motorsports: good guys, good prices,
King Rat: Alex just plain rocks, can't beat hand delivery...
RacerPartWholeSale: no problems with them, ordered over web.
Curpier Motorsports: Adam is cool, and has GREAT customer service
Cobalt: always a pleasure dealing with them
Primm: no-hassle exchange of suit, but spotty communications.
HyperDuck tuning: got an ECU with a bunch of different chips thrown in free.

I've been pretty happy/lucky I guess, but then again, I do a LOT of research ahead, and generally know what I need, and seldom have to do returns. I am an easy customer.

 

To avoid any identity mix-ups, my beef is with RACER WHOLESALE of Roswell, GA. RACER PARTS WHOLESALE in Indy is, as far as I know, a different group of people.

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Catch 22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ron carries pretty much the same stuff at the same prices (sometimes lower) but his customer service is A+. You will also sometimes find him providing track side support at Southeast events.</TD></TR></TABLE>
indeed


He accidentally sent me 5pts instead of the 6pts I ordered, and when I called, he immediately overnighted 6pt sub belts to me. I didnt even ask (or expect) for them to be overnighted!

Right now Im dealing with Stoptech shipping some stuff to the wrong address.....we will see how that goes.......

 

btw Kirk, just as a point of reference, what you expereienced with Racer Wholesale is not uncommon. In fact most online retailers not only will not refund your shipping, but they charge you a "Restocking fee"

for example, I ordered a stereo reciever from ecost.com a while ago. They sent the wrong one. like the bottom of the line when I ordered the top of the line. When I emailed them about it, they said I had to ship it back, and pay a 30% restocking fee. Even though it was their screwup. I ended up keeping it and getting shafted, because I was in the middle of a job change. Hey, at least the POS stopped working after a month.


Since what they sent you wasnt defective and there was no mistake on their part, I can understand their reasoning. You cant stay in business by loosing money on a sale. Not that I agree with it, just a different perspective.

 

Racer Parts Wholesale and Racer Wholesale are two separate companies under different ownership even though they are considered "sister" stores. Racer Parts bought out the "hard parts" part of the the Racer Wholesale business about 4 or so years ago.

 

Yeah, E. - I know. I got the same explanation from my online-shopper extraordinaire wife. I would understand if I the helmet skirt wasn't my color or made me look fat but it didn't physically do what it was supposed to do - go all the way around the bottom of the helmet to protect my fuzzy face from flame. Like getting a harness that doesn't latch.

BSI sent me a set of hubs that didn't quite fit inside my ABS rings and the strut bearings for a Golf from the other half of the 1996 run. They didn't hesitate to credit me the original cost and the shipping that I incurred.

EDIT - OOPS! I left Raceshopper.com off of my original list - the receipt wasn't in my folder. Edwin was great about exchanging a set of pads that weren't quite right, too and patient about the fact that I didn't know precisely which backing plate profile I needed.

One other situation though, that I wonder if anyone else has run across: Two companies that I ordered from quoted me a higher price on the phone than was indicated on their web site - "Oh, the new price is higher but we haven't updated the site." They were quick to honor the web-published price (I had printed the page in both cases) but it just struck me as interesting. It was close to the end of the calendar year and web content does have to be updated but...

K

 

My list:

Koni-Lee rules
Spugen-Duc is rokken like dokken
Brakezone/Wilwood-Rock on
Fastbrakes-Excellent
Comptech-Bitchin`
Golden Eagle-Outstanding
Church Automotive Testing-Radical

etc.

 

In the interest of fair play and full disclosure, I need to share an update...

What was not explained to me - and correctly so - was that Howard Bennett, the guy who took over as proprietor of Racer Wholesale at the beginning of the new year, was out of town due to a family emergency during the period of time when I was trying to get my refund straightened out.

It was also a lousy coincidence that my purchase happened on the old manager's computer system and the refund on the new one. Further, the system was new enough that none of the folks left to run things while Howard was gone were able to do anything with it, beyond typical order processes.

To his credit, Howard communicated with me directly and ultimately made good on the whole situation. He offered that, if I would "give them another try," he'd earn my business back. I took the offer and he has more than done so, so I'm pleased to move Racer Wholesale to the "good guy" list above.

I don't know where I first heard it but it is true that a person's real character shows through when faced with the decision of what to do about their own mistakes...

K